The First Order

1213 Invasion

The artificial intelligence, Zero, in its current form was a completely different being from the AI that had defeated humanity in Go.

The AI of the past was still only a program. It had stored countless records of Go games and played against itself countless times to build up a large data model.

However, the program was not sapient. Although it gave the feeling that it could think, that was actually achieved by using a value network for computing data and a policy network for strategy choices. However, its strategy choices were still very limited. It was not capable of deliberately tricking a human opponent into making the wrong move.

Therefore, that artificial intelligence program did not have true intelligence.

But the artificial intelligence, Zero, was different. It had completely awakened a higher level of consciousness and even started thinking about the coexistence of civilizations.

The underlying logic in which its choices were derived originated from itself, not humans.

It was an independent and extremely smart lifeform.

The Go game records Qing Zhen knew of only consisted of replay analyses from two matches between humanity and machines. There was no specific source code or data related to that machine learning algorithm.

He had repeatedly reviewed the replays in an attempt to get a glimpse of what this other life form was like through the past experience of humanity. But in fact, he understood it was very difficult to truly gain an understanding of artificial intelligence through just a few games of Go.

But Qing Zhen was right about one thing. When facing an artificial intelligence, seizing the initiative might not prove to be effective anymore.

He had to wait for Zero to make the first move, then wait for that moment to fight back from the brink.

At this moment, even Qing Zhen could not have expected Zero’s move would occur so soon.

…

At the Qing Consortium’s military base north of Stronghold 111, the highest-ranking military commander, Qing Yi, had raised the combat readiness to Level 1. This meant that all soldiers and officers who were on rotational break had to return to the base immediately.

Outside the military base, a captain was undergoing a very strict security inspection.

His personal belongings, communications equipment, and even the socks and underwear in his luggage were taken out one by one for checks.

During the process, the captain did not interact with the soldier who was inspecting him, regardless of the suspicion he was treated with.

Everyone was used to it. To ensure the safety of the base’s information, such sacrifices were actually not that big of a deal.

As long as they could win the war, what did being put through some security inspection matter to them?

The soldier carrying out the inspection swept a detector over the captain’s uniform and said, “Sir, please raise your hands.”

When the captain heard this, he cooperatively stood like a cross with his arms out and allowed the other party to scan him.

Two minutes later, the soldier saluted the captain. “Sir, that’ll be all.”

The captain returned his salute.

From going through the security inspection to being let into the base, everything moved like clockwork. It was a seamless process without any hindrance or conflict.

After passing through the inspection channel, the captain carried his luggage right to the Military Affairs Division to register himself. This was the procedure all returning Qing Consortium troops had to undergo.

Everything went off smoothly without a hitch.

But when night fell and the captain returned to his dormitory to rest, a silvery liquid metal suddenly seeped out from his ankle.

Nanomachines.

The silvery liquid metal quickly “slithered” into the ventilation duct in the dormitory’s ceiling like a snake.

However, just as it entered the ventilation duct and tried to pass through a node, an ear-piercing alarm suddenly blared in the entire dormitory.

At the same time, a powerful electric current surged through the node, destroying the nanomachines in an instant.

The security troopers quickly identified the location of the nanomachines through the security system. The entire military base was awakened as security forces locked down the entire dormitory in an attempt to find out what happened.

Everyone’s attention was focused on the dormitory. Many of the soldiers who had just fallen asleep were now awake. They put on their uniforms, grabbed their weapons, and gathered outside the dormitory to prepare for battle.

This was the first time the alarm had sounded since the military base was built.

It was as though war were imminent.

But amid the blaring alarm, a huge sparrow suddenly soared in the night sky and flew towards the other end of the military base.

It had a dazed expression and did not fly as agilely as other birds.

Suddenly, a Mountain Obliterator emplaced on a roof in the military base activated. The active thermal lock-on defense system had detected the presence of the sparrow.

A metal storm swept towards the sparrow as the machine gun barrels spun nonstop. The red-hot bullets cast a red streak across the night sky.

In just a flash, that sparrow was riddled with holes.

In this era, most people neglected the management of their territorial airspace. However, the Qing Consortium did not slacken its defense systems in this aspect.

Qing Zhen once said that when everyone started to ignore airspace, people would definitely attempt to turn it back into a battlefield and use it as their weapon.

When the soldiers at the military base heard the electrical buzz and rumbling of the Mountain Obliterator, they immediately turned to look at the falling sparrow.

But a moment later…

Another sparrow appeared, then two sparrows. More and more sparrows flew into the military base in the dark of the night. The countless birds flew fearlessly into the airspace above the military base like moths attracted to light before they were shot down by the metal storm.

In the huge military base, 72 Mountain Obliterators with active thermal lock-on defense systems were firing at full power. Their ballistic trajectories interweaved into a huge defensive net in the darkness of the night. Not even the sparrows could fly in through the air and make it past the base defense alive.

The defensive measures put in place were extremely rigorous.

However, after countless sparrows dropped dead inside the military base, a silvery liquid metal started oozing out of their carcasses.

The streams of liquid metal gradually turned into a river and “gushed” into the ground.

The soldiers could hear a rustling coming from the underground, but they couldn’t find any traces of the nanomachines.

The nanomachines required recharging, so they needed a reliable biological carrier to complete the charging process. After detaching from the living creature, they could only move around for less than five minutes.

That was why Zero needed these sparrows.

The creatures of nature had become the nanomachines’ transport planes and portable charging stations.

Their mission was not to attack the military base but to transport the nanomachines here.

After the liquid metal seeped underground, it did not lose its sense of direction. It accurately locked onto the military base’s command headquarters and kept advancing towards it.

4 minutes and 39 seconds later, the entire military base was suddenly plunged into darkness.

Tonight, the Qing Consortium’s security measures in place against invaders were very tight. But just like Qing Zhen’s replay of the Go games, the strategy employed by the other party was probably something humans would never have thought of.

It wasn’t that the Qing Consortium was not careful enough, but that the other party had enough time and computing power to make their own deductions until they found the best solution.

In this military base, even the ventilation ducts had been set up as defensive points to prevent any biological creatures from moving through them.

However, the captain who brought the nanomachines into the base was only the beginning of the invasion.

The other party seemed to know exactly when the alarms would go off and how to attract the attention of the garrison troops.

The busy soldiers and officers in the command headquarters were suddenly shrouded in darkness. Everyone stood still and couldn’t figure out what was going on.

There was no power outage, nor was there any damage to the base infrastructure. All of the equipment was in shutdown mode, and even the most basic devices such as printers and paper shredders had stopped working.

At the beginning, everyone waited for the backup power to kick in. But after 30 seconds, there was still no reaction. The backup power did not come on.

Small individual power generators were carried out of the warehouse by the soldiers. But no matter how hard they tried, they could not restart the equipment in the military base.

It was not a problem with the power source but that the entire military base had been attacked by an unknown force.

Left with no choice, everyone had to use their flashlights to illuminate the way. The entire military base started assembling quickly while the staff officers gathered all the documents and threw them into the incinerator to prevent any secrets from getting leaked in case the troops were attacked.

The staff officers gathered the documents onto carts and sent them for incineration.

But the expected attack did not arrive. By dawn, there was still no sign of any commotion outside the military base.

The highest-ranking military commander, Qing Yi, stood upright within the military base. When the morning sun rose, he said to his adjutant next to him, “Prep a vehicle. I’m going back to Stronghold 111.”

This was the Qing Consortium’s Military Base 12, and it was also where their most important missile troops were. Once this place got invaded, it would mean the Qing Consortium would lose their greatest reliance in a war.

Of course, there was more than one military base like this, but Qing Yi had reason to believe the other bases had also suffered a similar attack.

At this moment, the military base was unable to make any contact with the rest of the world. Therefore, Qing Yi had to personally go and explain the situation to Qing Zhen.

An orderly drove a military off-road vehicle over. The original arrangement was for the orderly to drive Qing Yi back to Stronghold 111, and his adjutant even planned to send a reconnaissance company to protect him.

However, Qing Yi inspected the vehicle seriously before driving off by himself.

Qing Yi knew about the nanomachines as well. The fighting force the nanosoldiers were part of used to be under his command. Therefore, he knew full well what had happened in the dormitory last night.

At a time like this, he would rather drive alone for six hours without anyone to protect him than let someone he could not trust bring something like the nanomachines to Qing Zhen’s location.

Although the Qing Consortium used to do research on nanomachines, it would be very difficult to discover them if they were hidden in the bloodstream or had attached themselves to the brain stem.

To be safe, Qing Yi would also have to undergo a stricter security inspection when he got to Stronghold 111.

…

On the way back to Stronghold 111, Qing Yi remained on constant full alert.

At some point, he wondered if the opponent was actually trying to force him to return to Stronghold 111 by himself by causing all that ruckus. This way, they could intercept and kill him while he was traveling back.

It was not that Qing Yi felt that he was so important, but that he was currently the highest-ranking military commander of the Qing Consortium. If he were killed, Qing Zhen’s focus would be affected.

Fortunately, nothing happened even by the time he arrived at Stronghold 111.

This left Qing Yi a little confused. The other party had launched an attack that almost shut down the entire military base, but there were no further attacks after that.

Usually, a series of follow-up attacks would come after the first one. As the saying went, “take them out while they’re down.” Military operations had always been a series of such attacks, so how could it be that they would only take down one lone military base?

Upon reaching Stronghold 111, professionals were already waiting at the stronghold’s entrance.

They set up a makeshift tentage to carry out the security inspection. The tent was filled with all kinds of equipment that would leave anyone who saw them dazed.

The tarpaulin canvas of this tent had been specially processed, and there was even a thick metal sheet sandwiched between the canvas layers.

After Qing Yi was brought in, an employee came up to him with a medical defibrillator.

Qing Yi took off his shirt and was made to lie flat on the medical bed by the staff member. Then, a conductive gel was applied to his chest.

“Sir, prepare yourself mentally. You might feel a little uncomfortable during the procedure, but that’s normal.” Someone carefully raised the metal electrodes with both hands and pressed one against the third rib on the right side of Qing Yi’s sternum, while the other was pressed against the fifth rib next to his left armpit.

Suddenly, Qing Yi’s entire body started convulsing. This defibrillator had been modified to operate at a greater current than when used as medical equipment.

At this moment, another staff member in the tent was staring at a screen. When he confirmed the data on it, he heaved a sigh of relief. “No nanomachines detected in the body. All clear.”

Basically, the bioenergy used to recharge the nanomachines was just electricity. Although the nanomachines were minute, they were still electronic components.

Meanwhile, these people carrying out the inspection used the defibrillator’s amplified current to destroy the electronic components. This was the simplest and crudest way to destroy the nanomachines in someone’s body.

Of course, there would be aftereffects from increasing the electrical current. Even if the conductive gel could spread the current more uniformly, it could not prevent electrical burns.

Qing Yi was panting hard and felt himself drenched in a layer of sweat. The two obvious burn marks on his chest looked extremely brutal.

However, he did not complain. This was what he had to go through before he could meet with Qing Zhen. He had to make sure Qing Zhen was protected.

One of the staffers said to Qing Yi, “Sir, do you want to rest first?”

Qing Yi shook his head. “No. Bring me to Mr. Qing Zhen.”

The staff members looked at one another before walking out of the tent quietly. Only the employee who had just given Qing Yi the electric shock remained inside. He took off his mask and protective suit and said with a laugh, “There’s no need to go anywhere. I’m right here.”

Qing Yi looked at Qing Zhen in front of him and was stunned for a long time. “Second Bro, why did you come out here personally? It’s very dangerous. What if there were nanomachines in me?”

“Don’t worry.” Qing Zhen said with a smile, “We have enough facilities here to deal with those little things. We probably can’t deal with them on a large scale, but if it’s only the amount a single person can carry, we’re more than prepared for it.”

Qing Yi said in a low voice, “Second Bro, I’m sorry. Military Base 12 was attacked. I couldn’t protect the base.”

Qing Zhen shook his head. “That’s not unexpected. I already told you that the enemy we’re facing is much stronger than we can imagine.”

Qing Yi said, “But I can’t even figure out the purpose of their attack.”

“There’s no rush.” Qing Zhen comforted, “They’ll come forward and tell us what they’re after.”